Weekly Update, 8/11/10

I am...

Sad for my husband and his family.  One of his aunts passed away this past weekend.  I didn't know her very well, but I know that his family was close to theirs, so he and his brother are traveling to Michigan for the funeral.

Happy I went back to my regular metformin dose.  Whew! All systems back to normal...or as normal as it gets around here.  For this past week, 7-day fasting was 105 and 7-day overall was 110.

Done listening to Women, Food, and God and stalled out on Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life . I'm not sure I have much new to say about them right now that I didn't say last week. WF&G was pretty good. I liked the point about food being a teacher - especially if one struggles with food issues. I definitely identified with the compulsive overeater subtype of "permitter" (whereas "restricters" tend to crave structure and rules around eating, and then binge when those rules prove to be impossible to follow 100%).  She also discussed "The Voice," a composite voice of authority in our heads, which is funny, because those authoritarian parts of Savor are the ones that irked me.

So I'll be curious to see how this plays out in my eating habits.  One thing from WF&G that I have already done all along was to not have the notion of "forbidden foods," which can (for some people-like me) make you only want them more. When I started out this time around, I had a guideline for what I needed to eat, and there were many foods I chose to not eat on a regular basis, but I never said, "I am never going to eat Food X ever again." I think that, for me, this worked really well.  I learned to limit things that weren't in my best health interest without it being a cause for revolt.  (Scary diabetic consequences are pretty powerful motivators.) Some things were easy for me:  I didn't miss white bread, pasta, rice, breakfast cereal, and the like.  I missed artisan bread, like sourdough; we don't buy it anymore, but if we're out and there's some and I feel like it's worthy, I'll have a little.  Other things were a regular habit.  For example, when I was in my initial frenzy of getting healthy habits, I stopped regularly drinking diet cola. I used to have at least 1 can a day, but I figured while I was highly motivated to flip my habit energies, why not try throwing this one in there, too? It stuck, because I had my tea and such, and nearly every place has either water or unsweetened iced tea, so there was always a good substitute.  I had some more serious binge eating issues (e.g., driving through Burger King and stuffing down a hamburger or two on the way home from work, when I knew dinner was waiting), and I think the shock of hitting my personal rock bottom was needed to switch that.  (Well, and Mr. H&H getting a truly nasty-tasting burger at Carl's Jr. during a road trip, which turned me off of all fast food burgers except In & Out.)  And yet, I still feel like I'm dealing with that mindset at times, even if it's not the amounts or the type of food I used to eat regularly.

Speaking of rock bottom, Christie O. has an excellent interview series with Tara Costa of The Biggest Loser over on her blog; Part 1 discusses how transformative hitting "rock bottom" can be.  (Though we still don't have to *like* it.)  You know what else is kind of funny?  It's almost like my diabetes diagnosis gave me an excuse to be particular about things I ate, and in general, an excuse to take better care of myself in general.  Oh, and over at Refuse to Regain, Barbara Berkeley also touches on rock bottom, although now I'm wondering if the above paragraph sounds like sad-sack "Queen for the Day" talk.  (Do I get a crown, a cape, and a blender now? ;-)

Training! As I said last week, I don't think I've ever followed a training plan exactly, but I do like having a guideline. Here's this weeks's training:

Were I "on plan," I would have had more running in there, but Cardio Sculpt absolutely fried my legs for a few days.  I need to talk to the instructor before I go to next week's class and get advice on how to modify what she's doing, because I can't meet my race training goals if I'm limping around for days after a strength workout.

I want to...

Transition my focus to running training. School starts in a couple of weeks, so next week will be my last week of Pilates for the summer.  Yesterday's class didn't seem quite so excruciating, but there was still plenty of stuff I hated doing.  Teasers and roll-ups, for example.  I think the instructor was pretty good at correcting form, but she didn't really take a lot of time to demonstrate or explain modifications to some of the more advanced moves, and I often felt kind of left to wriggle on my own and find something that worked for me.  I also think the class would have been more enjoyable if done to music; we only had the instructor counting.  That said, this class made me want to get my own exercise ball and do some of the exercises on my own.  (I liked the one where we tossed the ball up and caught it with our legs, and there were others that were kind to my lower back, yet still felt like a good abdominal workout.)

I do feel like it has made my core stronger, but it sure hasn't flattened my abs at all.  In fact, I compared my measurements at the end of July with those at the end of January of this year.  Although I was only 1 pound up, my waist was up 2 inches (!) and my bust was up 1.5 inch (like I needed that); my ribcage and hips were unchanged; left thigh was down .5 inch and the right thigh was up .5 inch.  Now, some of that was undoubtedly PMS fun, but sheeeeesh.

Maintain good health.  Doing the usual stuff.

Finish the Lompoc Triathlon!  T-minus 3 days!  Crikey!  I though this event might need to be cancelled with Mr. H&H gone, but my mom said she'd with watching the kids while I do this, so it's still on.